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David Friend: New Lama Drama

Bear Stearns has been gobbled by Chase; Microsoft may soon consume Yahoo. We have not one, not two, but three intelligent presidential candidates. We even have experts wagering that the Chicago Cubs will win the N.L. Central.

But now comes something really far-fetched. A wealthy American businessman named Steve Varon has spent much of that last year lobbying influential friends and world figures to persuade officials of the International Olympic Committee to allow the Dalai Lama to carry the Olympic Games Torch during one portion of its circuitous trip to China. Yes, the same Dalai Lama whom the Chinese government has labeled a "wolf in monk's clothing" and whose supporters it calls "the scum of Buddhism."

People close to Varon even say he has the approval of the Tibetan spiritual leader Himself. So, he's got that going for him.